Homemade Seafood Tom Yam

I love making soups......it's usually so simple, throw everything into boiling water and wait. Making Tom Yam isn't quite as simple, though. There's a few rounds of sieving involved, some blending and some sauteeing involved in the entire process.

I bought about 700g of prawns just to collect the shells to prepare the stock. To this, I added dried squid and ikan bilis to make the stock thicker and tastier.

Once prawn shells and co. have been boiled till all juices have melded into the water, sieve and get rid of all solids. I was left with a seafood stock which had the consistency of soap water haha!

Chop/crush/slice up all the herbs and vegetable-related ingredients for boiling.....lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, red and green chillies, birds' eye chillies, bunga kantan (torch ginger), limes......

.....onions and garlic.......

......tomatoes.........

.......abalone mushrooms.........

Blend and sautee a paste consisting of lemongrass, chillies, galangal, ginger, garlic & onions.

Add some Tom Yam paste from the bottle.

A couple spoonfuls of Thai chilli paste goes nicely with the concoction.

Tear up some coriander leaves for garnishing.

Add seafood (we used prawns and squid) and some santan (coconut milk) toward the end of cooking when the broth is almost ready, garnish with coriander leaves, and voila! Serve with piping hot rice.